Trump says US military to reimpose naval blockade on Iran

Iran's Revolutionary Guards said on Monday they would continue to enforce Iran's control over the Strait of Hormuz, accusing the United States of “putting global oil and gas supplies at risk through its actions” in the strategic waterway.

“We will continue to exercise sovereignty and control over the Strait of Hormuz with strength and power,” Guards spokesperson Hossein Mohebbi said.

Mohebbi said US involvement in the strait had endangered the security of global energy supplies and that Washington “must be held accountable.”

Iran said on Monday it would not allow the United States to take part in managing the Strait of Hormuz, following comments by President Donald Trump that Washington could take control of the strategic waterway.

“We will under no circumstances allow the United States to interfere in the management of the Strait of Hormuz,” the spokesperson for Iran’s Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters said.

Iran's armed forces, the spokesperson said, would respond “with force” to any US military interference with commercial or oil tanker traffic outside routes designated by Iran and without authorization from its armed forces.

The spokesperson also said any regional country providing logistical support to the US military would be regarded as participating in a war against Iran's sovereignty and national security.

President Donald Trump said on Monday that Iran's top commanders had been killed, and Mojtaba Khamenei was 90% gone.

“They have no navy, they have no air force, it's all gone. Their anti-aircraft is gone, their leaders have all been killed, their best leaders have been killed,” Trump said in an interview with Fox News.

“Khamenei is gone, the son is 90% gone,” Trump added.

The foreign ministers of Germany, France and Britain condemned Iran's attacks on commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz and on countries across the region on Monday.

“We condemn Iran's heinous attacks on merchant shipping in the Strait of Hormuz and on countries in the region, including Qatar, Kuwait, Oman and Jordan,” the ministers said in a joint statement.

The E3 called for the restoration of the ceasefire and the resumption of negotiations between the warring parties.

Britain summoned Iran's ambassador on Monday following its designation of the Revolutionary Guards, Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper said, according to a Sky News reporter.

“The IRGC was sitting behind” the newly proscribed group IMCR, which claimed responsibility for attacks targeting the Jewish community, Cooper said.

The British government will announce “further measures” in the coming days, Cooper added.